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The primary focus of planettoday.com is to provide the ultimate online experience through easy access to relevant, dynamic and interactive information from local, regional, and national sources. All planetttoday.com sites are designed using the same content-specific organization of information allowing immediate access to recent, reliable information in a highly intuitive, user-friendly environment. planettoday.com uses a dynamic approach to web site creation and development. One of our key objectives is to allow for continual change and growth within our Local Area Webs. Although all twelve content areas within the sites are clearly defined and structured, these structures will be constantly evolving to support future directions and initiatives. Planettoday.com's goal is to become and remain an Advocate for each Community we serve. The information architecture of our sites is that each content area and all of its sub-sections will contain a wealth of information with a focus on local and community-specific resources. To find out the information you need locate the subject within any of the department headings listed on the left side of the screen. Below is some of the information that these departments contain. Arts & Entertainment ~ lists events, attractions and activities; everything from exhibits to local hot spots. Business & Finance ~ contains links to everything you need from Consulting Services to Business Supplies. Directories ~ an exhaustive resource, your personal online yellow pages. Faith & Spirituality ~ let us direct you to the information, organizations and/or faith you are seeking. Health & Wellness ~ A wealth of online resources for all your health related concerns. Home & Family ~ Links you to family issues, lifestyle trends and information on community events. Learning Place ~ Need to find out more about schools, retraining, curriculum or classes? Leisure & Lifestyle ~ Everything you want to know about hobbies and leisure activities, from A to Z. Shops & Services ~ Links to local merchants and services; shop locally from your own home. Shop the World ~ Transports you to the best online shopping experiences the web has to offer. Sports ~ Contains links and information on everything sports related – from last night's scores to the time of today's practice to tips and highlights. Town Hall ~ Links to all local, provincial and national government agencies, services and initiatives. If you are looking for information about a specific topic, the Search box is used to find your topic within the planettoday.com's database. Simply type in the topic you want to find and hit the search button. When you use the keyword search you are first given the most relevant pages and related links specific to your community.
When you find a result that looks interesting, click on the title and you will be instantly connected to that site. Remember you can always tell when you have found a link – the arrow turns into a little hand. Be sure to be specific in your search keywords. Planettoday.com is designed to provide local community links first when you search for information. When a category is open, you will notice a small rectangle LOCAL tag to the left of each link. This tag indicates that the category contains local content. Another way to quickly access local content is by using the Local Links search box situated below the category names on the left of the screen. Simply select the subject you want and all the local links in that category will appear. The Month Ahead Calendar lists each day's events and activities. Click on any of the days within the Calendar to find out what's happening in your area. If you want to add a listing to our calendar, click on Add Your Calendar Event and enter the details.
Using message boards is a fun way to interact with others on the same topic of interest. When you click on Message Boards from the main start page, you will see several message boards listed relating to various subjects. You can join in any of these topics or search for a specific one using the search box. You can also create you own topic if it isn't already listed. To use a message board you will need to register. Make sure you read the users agreement first. You then have to choose a nickname and password that you will remember. This nickname will be your on-line name within the message board community. You will be prompted to choose another name if the one you initially picked is already in use. You can only post messages if you are a registered user. Non-registered guests can read messages, but can't post their own. How Associations can get involved
Non-profit groups, organizations and clubs can receive free web pages on this site and update information on a regular basis from a computer's web browser. You don't even need programming knowledge to do it. Many users have existing Web sites; some maintain sites both on planettoday.com and other servers. The benefits of the planettoday.com online community are that it's fast, free, and highly visible. You can put whatever you want on your site, within the boundaries of our content agreement. We encourage you to make your site as extensive as possible. Share photographs and news, and tell your audience about upcoming events, recent group activities, and membership and donation opportunities. Community groups also have access to the Month Ahead calendar on which they can publicize their upcoming events. This Web site has been optimized for Netscape Navigator 3.01 and Internet Explorer 3.0 or better. If you are viewing this site with a different browser, you may not be viewing it in its intended format. Let us know if you have a favourite site that you'd like to share. Contact us by clicking on the Suggest A Site link. We'll check it out and let you know what category we can fit it into. If you have an event that you want your community to know about let us know and we'll post it on the Month Ahead calendar. Simply click on the Add Your Calendar Event and fill out the form. We'll post it to the calendar within a few days. BROWSER: An application that users run on their computers to access World Wide Web resources. For example, Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer. GIF: (Graphical Interchange Format) The universal file format for illustrations or photos to be used on the Web. GIF images are limited to 256 colours and work best for images with large areas of solid colour (e.g. a logo). HITS: The number of times your site has been visited is measured in "hits". HOMEPAGE: The first page that visitors to your site see. HTML: (Hypertext Markup Language) A document-formatting language used by Web designers to combine text, graphics and links in a dynamic, interactive layout; this relatively simple programming language can be written using any word-processing package and is readable by most WWW browsers. HYPERTEXT: A text link to other documents or a different section within the same document; such links are indicated by text with a different appearance (size, colour). Clicking on the emphasized text can access the linked document. ICON: An on-screen symbol that simplifies access to a program, command or data file, and / or tells the user where they currently are on the site. INTERNET: A collection of networks interconnected by a set of routers that enable them to function as a single, large virtual network. INTRANET: A collection of networks similar to the Internet, but usually only available to a select group of users (like employees of a large company). JPEG: A file format that converts and compresses photos to a colour range and size easily viewed on the Web. JPEG works best for photographs with a continuous range of colours. LINK: A hypertext or image-based reference to another document or another point in the same document. SERVER: 1) A powerful computer that runs Web server software. 2) Where your website "lives". When other users link to your website using their browser (e.g. Netscape), your server responds by displaying or delivering your website's content to them. URL: (Uniform Resource Locator) The "address" of a website. (e.g. http://www.brampton.epla.net). Once your website is up and running on a server, you broadcast the URL of the "front door" that you want users to come through (hence the term "home page"). WEBSITE: The sum total of your homepage and all of the associated pages, which you have created and linked together. |
